I should have known better than to go for this Udayanidhi Stalin film, as Director I.Ahmed’s earlier film “Endrendrum Punnagai” was a damper too. I went to see the film because I had heard that Manithan (2016) was based on a good Hindi movie Jolly LLB, Udayanidhi‘s last film Gethu (2016) was enjoyable.
The story is about a struggling young lawyer Sakthi (Udhayanidhi Stalin) taking on a leading criminal lawyer in the country Adhiseshan (Prakash Raj) in a hit and run case against a wealthy businessman who had killed 6 poor on the platform. For the first hour, Sakthi comes out as a carefree character going about his life without any worries, loving Priya (Hansika Motwani), the usual role for Udayanidhi. Later when he is faced with pressure to prove himself, he just accidentally picks the drunk and drive case. This lack of any initiative on Sakthi’s part seems to be the theme from then on. Witnesses (original and fraud) just come up to him, a constable just hands over a piece of important evidence for just Rs.1 Lakh, in the courtroom, Sakthi doesn’t even quote one law point, often he tries to get emotional and cries (both emotions Udayanidhi fails to show). Sakthi makes only two counter-arguments in the courtroom that I remember were when he exposes the driver as a false witness by pointing out that Audi doesn’t have manual gears and when he says “Yes I agree Platform is not for sleeping, but neither Platform is for driving Cars“.
Veteran Radharavi does an important as Justice Dhanapal. Aishwarya Rajesh has played well her limited role as a Journalist Jennifer, similarly Actor Vivek has played his role as Sakthi’s uncle well.
Overall, a movie that is best forgotten.
மனிதன் (2016) – உதயநிதி ஸ்டாலின்